But a decade or so back, the increasing complexity of the computing environment resurrected virtualization again. The idea was pretty simple, a host software (a control program), creates a simulated computer environment, a virtual machine, for its guest software. The guest software, which is often itself a complete operating system, runs just as if it were installed on a stand-alone hardware platform. Thus, depending on the capacity of the host software and the hardware nfrastructure, there could be numerous of these virtual machines that are centrally managed.

The benefits were obvious, as a virtual machine can be more easily controlled and inspected from outside than a physical one; its configuration is also more flexible. Also a new virtual machine can be provisioned as needed without the need for up-front hardware purchase. And the virtual machine can be easily re-located from one physical machine to another as needed. Companies like VMware that were pioneers on this front, started to offer solutions that helped in application and platform-layer virtualization.

Home > Green IT

The Coming of Green Software

Continued from page: 1

Shashwat DC

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Print Comment Email Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Twitter When approached, Raj S Choudhury, country manger, India, NComputing brings out some glaring white sheet facts. According to him, by using the power sharing structure provided by NComputing, a company can save up to 15% in acquisition costs, over 70% in recurring maintenance costs and over 90% in power consumption costs. Also, according to Choudhury, if all the 850 mn PCs of our planet are replaced with a solution like theirs, the power consumption can be reduced by a whopping 120 bn kWh. Given such figures, its not surprising that the world has started noticing NCcomputing. In the last 18 months, they have shipped more than 1 mn orders. They have also recently struck a deal with Andhra Pradesh government for equipping 5,000 government schools. According to Choudhury, the AP government has saved Rs 85,000 Cr in acquisition costs alone by this decision. Although Wolfgang Gruener, a leading trend analyst predicts NComputing to be the next Google and warns Intel of its new rival, only time shall prove whether that is to happen or not. For now, we can only stare in disbelief at the figures above, and wonder if it is some magic. But thats what it is, as Choudhury says, the software is where the magic is.

Shift to Green
The Eureka moment happened some years back. As companies across the globe were looking at reducing their carbon and energy footprint (thanks to the vigorous campaign by the likes of RK Pachauri of IPCC and Al Gore); there was a sudden realization that virtualization could be one of the big ways to go Green. Agrees Ganesh Mahabala, regional director (India and SAARC), VMware. To give you a precise figure, according to the studies conducted by us, VMware virtualization is the single biggest bang for buck in Green IT. For instance, every server that is virtualized, the annual savings are approximately $700 or 7,000 kWh that is equivalent to eliminating 4 tonnes of CO2 emissions or around taking 1.5 cars off the road or equal to planting 20 trees.

Thus, the technology that enabled better management of resources suddenly transformed into a green wand that helped reduces power consumption. Dittos, Souma Das, VP (India sub-continent), Citrix Systems, Till date, many companies have been addressing the Green IT needs by deploying energy efficient hardware components. But a significant number of these Green IT needs such as reducing carbon emissions, heat emissions and coolant requirements can be better achieved through intelligent software solutions. And that is what we are trying to communicate through our virtualization product line.

Page(s)   1  2  3